Tsunami survivors: Whom do I live for now?
Fadli and Ridwan Max Sijabat, The Jakarta Post, Banda Aceh
Survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami in Aceh have expressed desperation at the thought of a future without their relatives and loved ones.
With so many people killed in the province, it seems that everybody has lost someone close. Husbands have lost wives, and wives husbands. Parents have lost children, and children parents. Many people are suffering from depression, but only a small fraction are receiving counseling.
Forty-year-old Ratnawati, who lost her husband Muhammad Diyah Abbas and her two children Mariadi and Mariani in the tsunami, said she no longer had hopes or dreams for the future.
"I do not know what to do anymore. I want to join my husband and children. I do not want to live. I do not know what I should live the rest of my life for because I have nobody," she told The Jakarta Post over the weekend.
Ratnawati, who is staying with her mother in Blang Bintang, Banda Aceh, said she was visiting her mother when the earthquake and tsunami struck.
"After the earthquake I called my children at our house in Kampung Baru, Meuraksa subdistrict, to ask if they were all right. They said they were fine and their father was still sleeping. Two hours after the tsunami devastated two-thirds of the city, I saw all of the houses had been flattened. My husband and children were presumed killed in the disaster after days of searching for them proved fruitless," she said.
Ratnawati and some other women who lost their husbands or children in the disaster have received counseling from Nadhlatul Ulama clerics to help them deal with their grief. Nadhlatul Ulama is the largest Muslim organization in the country.
Amiril, a 22-year-old police officer stationed in Lamno, Aceh Jaya, said he no longer felt like working since he lost his parents and three younger brothers in the disaster.
"Before the disaster, I did my job diligently. I was playing my role as the backbone of the family since my younger brothers were still in junior high school and high school," he said.
He survived the tragedy after being found on the roof of a house with head injuries. He underwent two weeks of treatment at the Police Hospital in Banda Aceh.
The young, at least, retain some purpose for living. Muhammad Reza Pahlevi, an eight-year-old whose parents and younger brother died in the tsunami, said he was searching for his grandmother in Genip, Bireuen, and he hoped to live with her and go back to school.
"I am looking for my grandmother and I want to go live with her. I want to return to school there so I can become a doctor," he said.
Reza, who lived with his family in Kampung Baru, Meuraksa, before the disaster, has not yet been able to see his grandmother.
Ratnawati, Reza and Amiril are just three of the thousands of Acehnese who lost loved ones in the disaster.
The tsunami swept through much of Aceh Besar, Aceh Jaya, West Aceh, North Aceh and Sigli, killing well over 100,000 people and displacing thousands of others.